Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Writer's Wednesday - The Art of Resilience

Today Joss Wood is talking to the Pink Heart Society community about the importance of resiliance for today's writers, plus there's a GIVEAWAY!

Our son Rourke is about to start high school (we start
high school at 13/14 in SA) and last Friday we took him to visit his new school
and the boarding establishment, where he will be spending the best part of each
week, home over the weekends. He’s only due to enroll there in mid-January and I
cried. Buckets. He’ll be fine—they have an indoor swimming pool so he can train
all year (not common at schools is SA) and an astro turf for his hockey so he’s
as excited as all hell.

His mother? Not so much.

He’ll be home on the weekends, people say, but as a
Mom, I feel like I am handing my child over. For four days of the week, I can’t
protect him— yes, he’s a foot taller than me and doesn’t need my protection but
allow me my illusions ‘kay?— listen to him, see
him! So why are you doing it, I hear you ask? That’s a long and complicated
story, suffice to say that it has to do with the fact that I live in a rural
town and the school offers facilities and subject choices that aren’t available
here and a host of other considerations. Just know that it wasn’t a decision
lightly made.

And what does
this have to do with romance writing?

Change.

Flux.

And the ability to surf the waves of
life.

The past six months have been a crazy test of my resilience with regard
to my writing and my son going away next year—excuse me while I reach for the
issues—will be another test. And isn’t that what we should be doing to our
characters, throwing stuff at them to watch them grow?To see how deal with the vagaries of their
made up lives? We’re teaching them that nothing, especially love, comes easy
and in doing so we are making them fight for their happy ever after. We make
them more resilient.

Resilient people look at a problem and say: “what’s
the solution? What’s this trying to teach me?” And I believe that it is a
fundamental trait that writers need, preferably in buckets, because we will
always be tested. Writing is hard work and there are bad reviews, you lose
contracts and—as I have done of more than one occasion—many pages of your WIP
because you didn’t back up. It’s the ability to pick yourself up, brush
yourself down and get back to the job.

I think I am naturally resilient but the past six
months have taught me to be more so. I hope that I have grown enough to wave my
son goodbye without dropping to my knees and clinging to him like a vine but
I’m not promising anything. I hope that I can watch him walk away and know that
he is starting a wonderful new adventure and trust that we’ve given him the
skills to cope with whatever comes his way.

Either way, around the 11th January, have
your water wings handy because those tears will be a-flowin!

Joss is offering an e-copy of Christmas with a Billionaire to two lucky commenters!!

Christmas with a Billionaire is a collection of three romance novellas, and Joss's is A Diamond for
Christmas:

Headstrong Riley's
holiday run-in with hot gemstone tycoon James Moreau is unsettling to
say the least.

But she soon discovers that the only thing better than
resisting temptation is finally giving in!

Loved your article, Joss! When my oldest went off the college, I cried buckets. And now he's getting married next year. More changes. We love his future wife but it means he won't be just "mine" anymore. I'm tearing up thinking about it. I felt the same when he went off to kindergarten that first day and all of sudden I wasn't the most influential person in his life. He loved his teacher and suddenly I had to share the spotlight.

The youngest graduated college last year and moved out on his own. More changes. This pas weekend he sent me a phone selfie that said "Guess where I am?" He and a friend had taken a road trip to Washington, D.C. That's like 9 hours away! It's hard not knowing where they are or what they're doing.